The invention relates to a comminution machine, in particular a meat mincer, including an emulsifier, a comminution device stored in a housing for chopping the meat or similar material, which comminution device is advantageously provided with a least one set of knives driven by a shaft and associated with a rotationally fixed perforated disk, a device for feeding the material to be chopped into the comminution device, a drive, and an outlet for the comminuted material, which is provided on an emulsifier housing connected to the housing and enclosing an emulsifier.
The emulsifier is supposed to take care that the minced material is evenly mixed and emulsified with separately supplied admixtures, whereby the interior of the emulsifier is connected to a negative pressure source, and thus the air contained in the emulsifying minced material is withdrawn therefrom.
The purpose of the invention is to connect a comminution machine of the above-identified type in a compact simple design to the emulsifier and to construct same in such a manner that the material to be comminuted is moved uniformly and well mixed out of the comminution machine.
The purpose is attained according to the invention in such a manner that a rotation-symmetrical stator with a support member is constructed on the emulsifier housing, which stator envelopes with an inwardly facing support surface an outwardly facing fulling surface, which is provided on a fulling body of a rotor rotationally connected to the shaft and adapted to the stator, in such a manner that between the support surface and the fulling surface there is constructed a wedge-shaped converging gap coaxially extending around a common axis of the rotor and the stator, and that a coaxial hub connected to the fulling body is provided on the rotor, with which hub the rotor is supported on the shaft.
It is particularly advantageous when the fulling body is constructed hollow-conical and thus encloses an otherwise available hollow-cone chamber as part of the inside of the emulsifier. The support member and/or the fulling body can in a simple manner have a wall each with a uniform wall thickness, if one thereby disregards the, if necessary, not smooth surfaces.
The minced material emulsifies particularly well when the gap is tapered toward the front surfaces of the rotor and of the stator, which front surfaces do not face the cutting device and are equilateral with respect to the common axis, whereby the front surfaces each form the bases of the support member/fulling body, which bases belong to the support surface and the fulling surface; the minced material is in this manner subjected to a continuously increasing static pressure up to the outlet. The comminution device can be designed as a cutting device.
A particularly preferred embodiment of the invention is a coaxial hub connected to the fulling body is provided on the rotor, with which hub the rotor is supported on the shaft so that a separate device for the emulsifier is not needed. The hub is arranged on the shaft preferably indirectly through an operating means for the set of knives, which operating means is axially movable on the shaft with the help of a clamping device. It is thereby advantageous when the hub is provided on the side of the fulling body determined by its smaller diameter; the shaft can therefore extend with its free end into the hollow-cone chamber of the fulling body so that it can there be utilized for further tasks not connected to the emulsifier; for example a clamping device for the cutting device can be mounted thereon.
The minced material emulsifies very well when the support surface of the stator and/or the fulling surface of the rotor are provided with several adjacent, preferably groove-shaped, coaxial annular grooves, whereby in each case the entire support surface and/or fulling surface can be occupied up by annular grooves.
Instead, it is also possible for the support surface of the stator and/or the fulling surface of the rotor to have preferably grooved-shaped longitudinal grooves, which are each parallel to them; as a rule it is best when annular grooves on the support surface are combined with longitudinal grooves on the fulling surface.
The flow of the minced material can be supported when the annular grooves are crossed by preferably groove-shaped longitudinal grooves extending transversely to them and being parallel to the support surface or the fulling surface such that they connect adjoining annular grooves with one another, whereby an unhindered flow in turn can be easily avoided in such a manner that the longitudinal grooves are arranged offset to one another so that the minced material must continuously change its flow direction.
It is understood that in place of the annular grooves it is also possible to provide spiral-shaped or helically shaped grooves, which are spaced from one another; however, it is also conceivable depending on the desired degree of emulsification that the support surface of the stator and/or the fulling surface of the rotor are designed as smooth conical surfaces.
A particularly compact design of the emulsifier is achieved when the gap transfers over into an annular chamber, which is connected to the outlet and is constructed between the pipe connection of the stator and of the rotor.
A good suction action on the minced material can be guaranteed in such a manner that the gap, preferably near the annular chamber, is fluidly connected through at least one opening in the fulling body first to the hollow-cone chamber of the fulling body, which hollow-cone chamber does not face the gap, and from there through a housing outlet to a negative pressure source.
Since a separate drive for the rotor of the emulsifier is not needed because of the inventive arrangement, it is best when the drive acting onto the shaft is provided for the cutting device, the conveying device and the emulsifier.
As a whole the invention permits a very compact arrangement of the emulsifier on the mincer, and yet simultaneously enables the emulsifier to adapt to the minced material or material to be chopped and emulsified and to create very different products solely by exchanging the rotor and/or the stator.